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Labour Force, Australia

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Headline estimates of employment, unemployment, underemployment, participation and hours worked from the monthly Labour Force Survey

Reference period
May 2023
Released
15/06/2023

Key statistics

In trend terms, in May 2023:

  • unemployment rate remained at 3.5%.
  • participation rate remained at 66.8%.
  • employment increased to 14,003,400.
  • employment to population ratio remained at 64.4%.
  • underemployment rate increased to 6.3%.
  • monthly hours worked increased to 1,944 million.

In seasonally adjusted terms, in May 2023:

  • unemployment rate decreased to 3.6%.
  • participation rate increased to 66.9%.
  • employment increased to 14,011,800.
  • employment to population ratio increased to 64.5%.
  • underemployment rate increased to 6.4%.
  • monthly hours worked decreased to 1,944 million.
  • full-time employment increased by 61,700 to 9,826,200 people.
  • part-time employment increased by 14,300 to 4,185,600 people.
Key statistics - Trend
Apr-2023May-2023Monthly changeMonthly change (%)Yearly changeYearly change (%)
Employed people13,963,60014,003,40039,8000.3%426,6003.1%
Unemployed people511,700512,8001,1000.2%-14,500-2.8%
Unemployment rate3.5%3.5%0.0 ptsna-0.2 ptsna
Underemployment rate6.2%6.3%0.0 ptsna0.1 ptsna
Participation rate66.8%66.8%0.0 ptsna0.1 ptsna
Monthly hours worked in all jobs 1,937 million 1,944 million7 million0.4%99 million5.4%
Key statistics - Seasonally adjusted
Apr-2023May-2023Monthly changeMonthly change (%)Yearly changeYearly change (%)
Employed people13,935,80014,011,80075,9000.5%465,5003.4%
Unemployed people532,400515,900-16,500-3.1%-35,500-6.4%
Unemployment rate3.7%3.6%-0.1 ptsna-0.4 ptsna
Underemployment rate6.2%6.4%0.3 ptsna0.5 ptsna
Participation rate66.7%66.9%0.1 ptsna0.2 ptsna
Monthly hours worked in all jobs 1,980 million 1,944 million-36 million-1.8%88 million4.8%

Estimates of changes throughout this release are calculated using un-rounded level estimates and may be different from, but are more accurate than, movements obtained from the rounded level estimates.

For definitions of labour statistics used in this publication, please refer to Glossary of Labour Force, Australia methodology.

Survey impacts and changes

Articles and other information

As Labour Force hours worked data are returning to normal patterns, the ABS ceased publishing the article ‘insights into hours worked’ in the April 2023 publication.  The data cubes EM2a and EM2b, usually published in the detailed release, will continue to be published with the release of headline estimates until the end of the winter months in 2023 (exact timing to be confirmed) to enable more detailed analysis of changes in hours worked and the reasons that people are working reduced hours.

Quarterly rebenchmarking of labour force statistics

Survey response and timeline

Unemployment

In trend terms, in May 2023:

  • unemployment rate remained at 3.5%.
  • unemployed people decreased by 1,100 to 512,800. 
  • youth unemployment rate remained at 7.8%.

Large month-to-month changes occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in multiple trend breaks. The ABS recommends caution when using trend estimates published in spreadsheets in this release for this period. Information on trend breaks can be found in Labour Force, Australia methodology, May 2023.

Employment

In trend terms, in May 2023, employment increased by 39,800 people (0.3%) to 14,003,400 people.

Flows into and out of employment

Large month-to-month changes occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in multiple trend breaks. The ABS recommends caution when using trend estimates published in spreadsheets in this release for this period. Information on trend breaks can be found in Labour Force, Australia methodology, May 2023.

Full-time and part-time employment

In trend terms, in May 2023:

  • full-time employment increased by 33,100 to 9,818,100 people, and part-time employment increased by 6,700 to 4,185,300 people.
  • part-time share of employment was 29.9%.

 

Employment-to-population ratio

In trend terms, in May 2023, the employment-to-population ratio remained at 64.4%.

The employment-to-population ratio provides a measure of employment relative to the size of the population.

Large month-to-month changes occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in multiple trend breaks. The ABS recommends caution when using trend estimates published in spreadsheets in this release for this period. Information on trend breaks can be found in Labour Force, Australia methodology, May 2023.

Hours worked

In trend terms, in May 2023, monthly hours worked in all jobs increased by 7.2 million hours (0.4%) to 1,944 million hours.

Large month-to-month changes occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in multiple trend breaks. The ABS recommends caution when using trend estimates published in spreadsheets in this release for this period. Information on trend breaks can be found in Labour Force, Australia methodology, May 2023.

Participation

In trend terms, in May 2023, the participation rate:

  • remained at 66.8%.
  • remained at 71.2% for men and increased to 62.6% for women.

Large month-to-month changes occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in multiple trend breaks. The ABS recommends caution when using trend estimates published in spreadsheets in this release for this period. Information on trend breaks can be found in Labour Force, Australia methodology, May 2023.

Underemployment

In trend terms, in May 2023:

  • underemployment rate increased to 6.3%.
  • underutilisation rate remained at 9.8%.

Large month-to-month changes occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in multiple trend breaks. The ABS recommends caution when using trend estimates published in spreadsheets in this release for this period. A list of trend breaks can be found in Labour Force, Australia methodology, May 2023.

States and Territories

May 2023 - Trend
New South WalesVictoriaQueenslandSouth AustraliaWestern AustraliaTasmaniaNorthern TerritoryAustralian Capital TerritoryAustralia
Employed people4,346,8003,620,5002,837,700954,4001,541,200291,200144,300266,80014,003,400
Employed people - monthly change0.2%0.4%0.4%0.4%0.1%0.2%0.6%0.4%0.3%
Employment to population ratio63.9%64.9%63.9%62.0%66.5%60.4%73.6%71.0%64.4%
Employment to population ratio - monthly change0.0 pts0.1 pts0.1 pts0.1 pts-0.1 pts0.0 pts0.3 pts0.1 pts0.0 pts
Unemployment rate3.1%3.7%3.9%3.9%3.6%4.0%3.3%2.9%3.5%
Unemployment rate - monthly change0.0 pts0.0 pts0.0 pts0.0 pts0.0 pts0.0 pts-0.1 pts0.0 pts0.0 pts
Underemployment rate6.1%5.9%6.6%7.2%6.0%7.4%4.1%5.2%6.3%
Underemployment rate - monthly change0.1 pts-0.1 pts0.0 pts0.0 pts0.1 pts-0.1 pts0.0 pts0.0 pts0.0 pts
Participation rate66.0%67.4%66.5%64.6%69.0%62.9%76.2%73.1%66.8%
Participation rate - monthly change0.0 pts0.1 pts0.1 pts0.1 pts-0.1 pts0.0 pts0.3 pts0.1 pts0.0 pts
May 2023 - Seasonally adjusted
New South WalesVictoriaQueenslandSouth AustraliaWestern AustraliaTasmaniaNorthern TerritoryAustralian Capital TerritoryAustralia
Employed people4,356,8003,627,8002,851,200956,5001,539,300290,900142,000267,80014,011,800
Employed people - monthly change0.7%0.7%1.0%1.3%-0.2%-0.1%-1.2%2.9%0.5%
Employment to population ratio64.1%65.1%64.2%62.2%66.4%60.4%72.4%71.3%64.5%
Employment to population ratio - monthly change0.3 pts0.3 pts0.4 pts0.7 pts-0.3 pts-0.1 pts-1.0 pts1.9 pts0.2 pts
Unemployment rate3.0%3.7%3.9%4.0%3.7%4.2%3.1%3.1%3.6%
Unemployment rate - monthly change-0.4 pts-0.2 pts0.1 pts-0.3 pts0.1 pts0.3 pts-0.2 pts0.1 pts-0.1 pts
Underemployment rate6.2%5.8%6.8%7.1%6.4%6.9%4.7%5.3%6.4%
Underemployment rate - monthly change0.5 pts-0.1 pts0.5 pts-0.5 pts0.7 pts-0.6 pts1.0 pts0.6 pts0.3 pts
Participation rate66.1%67.6%66.8%64.8%68.9%63.1%74.7%73.6%66.9%
Participation rate - monthly change0.0 pts0.2 pts0.5 pts0.5 pts-0.2 pts0.1 pts-1.2 pts2.0 pts0.1 pts

Historical charts

Historical charts for employed, unemployed, unemployment rate and participation rate from August 1966 to May 2023

Rotation group analysis

Sample composition and rotation

Estimates for the incoming and outgoing rotation groups

States and Territories

Comparability with seasonally adjusted and trend data

Contribution from sample components to estimates

Data downloads

Labour Force Survey results are released in three stages.

  1. Spreadsheets of the headline indicators are published in this release
  2. Additional, more detailed spreadsheets and pivot tables are published in Labour Force, Australia, Detailed one week after this first release
  3. Longitudinal labour force microdata are released in the ABS DataLab on a monthly basis, one day after the detailed release (see Microdata: Longitudinal Labour Force, Australia)

See the Survey output section of Labour Force, Australia methodology for more information.

Labour Force status

Data files

Hours worked

Data files

Underemployment and underutilisation

Data files

Flows into and out of employment

GM1 - Labour force status and Gross changes (flows) by Age, Sex, State and Territory, February 1991 onwards

All time series spreadsheets

All time series spreadsheets


 

Data Explorer datasets

Caution: Data in the Data Explorer is currently released after the 11:30am release on the ABS website. Please check the time period when using Data Explorer.

For information on Data Explorer and how it works, see the Data Explorer user guide.

Labour Force status by Sex, State and Territory - Number of people employed, unemployed and not in the labour force, monthly, February 1978 and onwards.

Labour Force monthly hours worked by Sex, State and Territory - Monthly hours worked by employed people, monthly, July 1978 and onwards.

Article archive

Employment and jobs

Unemployment and underemployment

Hours worked

Methodology

Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 6202.0.

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